Vs. Banschbach, COLOR ASSOCIATION INFLUENCES HONEY-BEE CHOICE BETWEEN SUCROSE CONCENTRATIONS, Journal of comparative physiology. A, Sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology, 175(1), 1994, pp. 107-114
Certain colours associated with floral food resources are more quickly
learned by honey bees (Apis mellifera) than are other colours. But th
e impact of colour, and other floral cues, on bee choice behaviour has
not yet been determined. In these experiments, colour association and
sugar concentration of reward were varied to assess how they interact
to affect bee choice behaviour. Thirty-five bees were individually gi
ven binary choices between blue and yellow artificial flowers that con
tained either the same rewards or rewards of different sucrose concent
rations. Honey bee choice between sucrose concentrations was affected
by colour association and this effect was greatest when absolute diffe
rence between rewards was the lowest. The honey bee's ability to maxim
ize energetic profitability during foraging is constrained by floral c
ue effectiveness.